Father
by Sarah Elric
Summary: HAPPY late FATHER'S DAY! This is a revelation made by Isshin as he watches his children sleep...preview! I told you before...don't make a baby if you can't be a father... I never realized...it was much easier to become a father than to be one...


**Haha! I wrote a NONE Ichihime fic! Yay me! This is in honor of father's day (well a BELATED father's day, but one none the less!)! To my Poppi on his day...may he always know that I love him terriblely even though he sometimes was caught up in his work...I LOVE YOU POPPI!!! Yay! Onto the ficcy! PLEASE REVIEW IF YOU LOVE YOUR DADDY! Or...just review..kay?**

**I OWN NOT THE MANGA NOR THE ANIME "BLEACH" BUT I DO OWN THIS STORY! (so no touchy!) **

Isshin's starting to realize that his son's not a child anymore. Ichigo never was really a child, well, not after his mother died anyway. He grew up in that span of a year to become a man, in a child's body, but a man none the less. Isshin watches his daughters sleep and wishes that things were different. That his wife hadn't died and left this gap in their family, in their life. He pulls the door closed and starts down the hall to Ichigo's room, expecting it to be empty.

He opens the door and let out a small gasp. There Ichigo lays bathed in the light of a full moon, his face for once lacking the usual scowl. While he lays like that Isshin can only think of a time when Ichigo was a child. Of a time long ago when he was the dad that sat down and read bedtime stories, that wrestled in the fresh spring grass, who taught him how to swim. He sighs sadly at the memories.

Isshin walks over to the bedside and pulls up a chair, in his mind he remember countless hours beside his son telling stories of brave warriors called shinigami who fought horrible beasts called hollows. He evoked lifelike images within Ichigo's young mind, and almost convinced him that they weren't stories but real life accounts. Back then his son wanted to become a shinigami, to fight and protect. Funny how fate spits in your face.

He reaches out and rubs Ichigo's head and feels the soft hair beneath his fingertips. When he was born, he laughed at his son's hair, the bright orange. His wife looked perplexed, but Isshin shook his head and smiled. Ichigo looked nothing like him, acted nothing like him, he was a person all his own. His wife smiled and said that she loved him for that. Once his daughters had been born, both respectfully resembling a parent, his son questioned his own looks. Ichigo was told that his hair made him unique, like no other, he should love his orange locks. Today he defends himself proudly against those who find him different.

Isshin wishes that he could have stopped Ichigo from finding out about his heritage. That he could stop him from becoming what he once was, for that life lets you have little freedom and mostly danger. He wishes that he could forced his son to drop his "part time" job and focus on school so he can go to a university and become a doctor. His wife always told Ichigo that he could be whatever he wanted, but would she have wanted to see him get hurt countless times physically and emotionally? Isshin would shield his daughters though, even if he had already lost his son.

He pulls back his hand and looks out the window. He wonders if he can continue to live peacefully now that his powers have reawakened. He wonders if he ever will have to tell his daughters the secret life that has been revolving around them. He wonders if he will ever have to tell Ichigo the truth, the dirty little secret that he would wish upon anyone else, just not his son. What would you do if you knew something dreadful, dangerous, frightening, awe-inspiring, wonderful, magnificent about your child, a secret that would shake their very souls to the bone at it's power?

Isshin steps away from his son's side. He retreats back the doorway and is about to close the door for the night when he hears it, her voice. "He's your son...he's your very flesh and blood...because of you...he lives...will you deny him his right to know...?"

"I'm only protecting what time I have left with him...I'm doing it for his own good..."

"If you really love him...you will let him know...I told you before...don't make a baby if you can't be a father..."

"I never realized...it was much easier to become a father than to be one..."

"Then _be_ a father! You might never understand him or ever agree, you might never be able to control him; I know you want him to grow up right! I do too! But he has to learn right from wrong on his _own_ terms! He has to learn to wield his inner light, and if he follows yours, he won't! Please! Please...just..."

He walks away, down the hall to his bedroom. He closes the door and walks to the bed. He flops down onto the soft mattress, and for the first time, in a long time, he cries. Tears of anguish that resound in the night. The painful cries of a heartbroken, helpless, weak, tired, scared, worried, old man. He pulls a pillow over his face, not wanting his children to see, to hear him in this state. His cries soon muffle then cease altogether. He pulls the pillow away and the first thing he sees when he looks up is the picture. The last picture they took as a complete family, Yuzu and Karin, Ichigo, himself, and then...

"Masaki..." he whispers as he slowly begins to fall asleep. "For you...I'll be a father..."

**GAH! I suck! I know it was HORRIBLELY short! So don't put that in your reviews...cause I know...Also...I need some ideas for some of my fics...I lost my mind somewhere between sanity and the carnival...goodness I love the carnival...Neyway REVIEW AND GIVE SUGGESTIONS! puhWEASE?**


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